Lord, let us shake hands over these confessional hedges, and let us
break them down, so as to be able to embrace one another altogether.
These hedges are doctrinal divisions about which either we or you are in
error. If you are in the wrong, we do not hold you morally culpable;
for your education, surroundings, knowledge, and training made the
adherence to these doctrines excusable and even right. Let us examine,
compare, and investigate the matter together, and we shall discover the
precious pearl of peace and unity; and then let us join hands together
in cultivating and cleansing the garden of the Lord, which is overgrown
with weeds." There are blessed signs that the Holy Spirit is deepening
the spiritual life of widely separated brothers. Historical Churches
are feeling the pulsation of a new life from the Incarnate God. All
Christian folk see that the Holy Spirit has passed over these human
barriers and set His seal to the labors of separated brethren in Christ.
The ever-blessed Comforter is quickening in Christian hearts the divine
spirit of charity. Christians are learning more and more the theology
which centres in the person of Jesus Christ. It is this which worldwide
is creating a holy enthusiasm to stay the flood of intemperance,
impurity, and sin at home, and gather lost heathen folk into the fold of
Christ. In our age every branch of the Church can call over the roll of
its confessors and martyr, and so link its history to the purest ages of
the Church. We would not rob them of one sheaf they have gathered into
the garner of the Lord. We share in every victory and we rejoice in
every triumph. There is not one of that great company who have washed
their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, who is not our kinsman in
Christ. Brothers in Christ of every name, shall we not pray for the
healing of the wounds of the body of Christ, that the world may believe
in him?

We are perplexed by the unbelief and sin of our time. The Christian